Saturday, September 27, 2008

Well, my husband and I were given AMAZING tickets to see the Jays play. We were right in front of the Jay's dugout... really wicked!

We had a great time, and of course, I brought my camera. I did have some trouble. Many of the pictures came back blurry, because of light and shutter speed constrictions... I'll have to work on that and figure it out.

In any case, I fooled around in Photoshop with these. It was fun. I enjoy playing in PS, but I don't want my pictures to look gimmicky... I'd rather just take really great photographs that speak for themselves. Still fun though.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

So after much internal debate, I have decided to show what I learned in last week's Photoshop class. The reason for the debate is that we learned to remove wrinkles, and as such I will be posting a photo of my mother, that will in turn ask my dear readers to notice how many she has, and how amazing I am for making her look better.

Let me just preface by saying that I think my mother looks great for her age (wrinkles and all). I am a firm believer that people should embrace aging and try to do it as gracefully as possible and always naturally. People seem to forget that not everyone has the chance to grow old.

So, last week we used the healing brush, Gaussian blur & diffused glow. Original will be first followed by my work.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

One things I've been thinking about as a fault of digital photography is that because there is no film, photographers may perceive that they don't need to take as much time thinking about the photograph, because there is no limit to the number of pictures one can take. Perhaps, its just me, because I'm so used to point and shoot cameras, where you're taking pictures of your life events, but it seems to me perhaps we've just lost our patience in an age of instant gratification.

Back in the day when plates were used to take photographs, you only had a few tries to get it right. As such, you had to really concentrate to make sure the lighting was right, the picture is framed properly, the exposure is correct, etc. I've been thinking about it quite a bit. So my latest resolution is to scope out and think about my pictures more before I start shooting. This should hopefully make my photos better.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Well, as you may or may not know, I missed the second half of my photoshop class last week. Because I was missing it, my teacher suggested that I watch some tutorials on You Tube to learn more about Curves. I found this tutorial and found it to be very useful. I had NO idea before I watched this. Me thinks I shall be using curves much more often & more effectively from now on.

Friday, September 12, 2008

I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to let everyone know about an AMAZING band from Vancouver, Canada. They are Mother Mother. I have seen them play a couple times now and have a new album coming out September 16th called O MY ♥. They are currently promoting it on their myspace page (here) or visit their website. Seriously... they are absolutely wicked, and fun and quirky and lovely. I am in love with their new tracks & still listen to the old ones. Maybe one day they will let me photograph them... lol! I will most certainly be bringing the cam next time I see them live.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

So, I thought I would take some time again to profile another photographer that I admire: Natalie Norton... I've never met this woman, but I've read many of her blogs. She has been a guest blogger on DPS and also has her own blog: Pics and Kicks. So I came to know of her, through DPS and then went to check her out. She is great. She uses her blog for personal purposes, such as wishing people a happy birthday, for professional purposes, by showing teasers for her clients and as an educator, helping people like me. She is able to write in ways that are easy to understand and more importantly NOT boring! :) (Thanks for that). One of my favourite things that she does is interview other photographers for her blog. It's brilliant! I love learning about others.

I don't just admire her for her wonderful blog that keeps me informed and amused. She also takes wonderful photographs. Her focus is definitely on portraits. She takes great portraits using lighting, angles and colour to create some fantastic shots. Not your run of the mill photographer. She is able to take great group shots too! I adore this one. Such a creative way to shoot a family, using depth of field. I love it!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Alright, well the other night when I posted my TIFF photos, I purposely left these two out because I thought I'd say a few words about them.

They are in fact, the exact same photo. I was enhancing the photo in PS, and then decided that I would fool around with it a little more, because it was a photo with many colours and is a photograph of street art. So, I was playing around with hue and saturation when I got the below result. What I love about it, is the maple leaves that just scream out at you... They are so obscure in the first photo and by playing around with the saturation I was able to have them pop out so they are the feature of the photo.

I just think its interesting to see the difference that can come out of the same shot. This may inspire me to use PS a little more dramatically in the future... we'll see.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

As promised, here are some of the pics I took Sunday at Dundas Square. I have to admit, after being there Friday and Saturday night I was really excited to capture the excitement of the area, but when I was there Sunday evening I wasn't feeling it as much (likely because it was a Sunday night).

In any case, this is what I got... nothing like the works of Mr. Robert King, but I like a few of them none-the less.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

This week in Toronto is the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). I have an amazing boss who is working this week at TIFF who was awesome enough to give me tickets to a couple shows. The one I saw last night was called Blood Trail and follows a war photographer (Robert King) for 15 years. Let me tell you - I thought it was great. For one it depressed me as a photographer - I take pictures of people and animals (my dog) and things, such inconsequential things... however it did inspire me to have more life in my photos. I may not be going to the front lines of war to find compelling pictures, I just have to make my pictures more compelling.

What's amazing about TIFF if that the people who make the movie are there. They present the film & then stick around afterwards to discuss. What's great about this was the two men that followed & recorded Robert (the war photographer) were there as well as Robert himself - and his wife and child, who were also in the film briefly. There was a questions and answers period afterwards, but I didn't have the guts to ask: If it is so traumatizing for him to go and take these pictures, why does he keep going back? Ah well. I would have had photos to attach of the key players in making this film, but I'm a moron (you read it here first!!!) and forgot my memory card in my computer at home - that's right I screwed up rule number two. Got rule number one down (bring your camera everywhere), I just forgot to pack all the equipment.

I will be going back to Dundas Square this evening to take pictures. I noticed there was a lot of excitement and movement (a pulse if you will) there the last 2 nights. It's something I would at least try to capture. Hopefully I'll be able to get something decent to share with you.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Alright, so I had my first class this week. It was alright... a little slow, but I'm hoping it will pick up. My biggest fear at the moment is that I'll already know most of the stuff that we're learning. After taking Intro to Digital Imaging, which WAS a prerequisite and now isn't (grrr) I'm afraid that we're going to cover many of the same things. From the course syllabus it looks like perhaps the last class I'll be learning something new.

On the other hand, holy pimp labs! Our classes are now in the new St. James building, and it is awesome! Last year I was using the oldest macs ever, with scratched up screens (which made it difficult to pay attention to details) and dark rooms that were poorly laid out.... not this year... everything is new, new desks, computers, flat screens... the work. It's about a million times better. Props to George Brown.

Next week I need to duck out of class early to catch Curtis' show (he does stand-up), which I can't miss. Interesting fact: My teacher for this class - Jeff Turner, did the cover photography for a comedy album (The Very White Album) featuring Jeff McEnery, who is quite funny. Curtis and I saw him at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto. Small world.